Monday, November 13, 2006

Spotlight On - Baking: From My Home To Yours - The Round-up!

Hey everyone, and thanks for coming to check out the round-up for Spotlight on - Baking: From My Home To Yours. This is a cookbook event/review that I organized with my friends at Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company. We asked 24 bloggers to join me in checking out the new cookbook Baking: From My Home To Yours by the wonderful Dorie Greenspan.

I would like to thank all the bloggers who agreed to take part in this with me. I've enjoyed chatting with so many of you over this past month, getting to know you a bit better and discovering some new food blogs from you along the way. I'm glad all of you had a good time too.

We've got lots of great reviews and delicious food, so let's get started.

Kalyn is the author of the popular blog Kalyn's Kitchen in Salt Lake City, Utah. As many of you know, Kalyn's blog is mainly about the South Beach Diet, so I was so happy when she agreed to join us and prepare a (somewhat) suitable dessert for those on the program. The Parisian Apple Tartlet looks delicious for anyone, dieter or not. Thanks Kalyn!

Nic at the popular Baking Sheet is from Los Angeles, California. She is a great baker and enjoyed Dorie's Cinnamon Chocolate Square.

Here's our first international blogger! Pam is a wonderful blogger and soon-to-be-mom over at Posie's Place in Germany. Despite calling herself a novice baker, Pam really hit it out of the park with the scrumptious Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. Pam I hope you saved me a piece!

One of my favorite Canadian bloggers, heck, favorite bloggers from anywhere is Ruth from Toronto Ontario and the delicious Once Upon a Feast. Ruth says that Dorie's Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies are the best brownies she's tasted EVER! Sounds good to me, thanks so much for taking part Ruth!

I was so thrilled when Emmy from Vegan Diva agreed to take part. With many people either unable to or choosing not to eat dairy/animal products, Emmy takes 2 recipes and shows us how they can be veganized. Here's her versions of Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake and Peanuttiest Blondies. Emmy, thanks again!

I was very happy to discover Pavani and Cooks Hideout a while back. Pavani cooks tons of amazing looking food, and I've tried some of her Indian recipes. So. Good! I'm so glad Pavani agreed to help me out for the Spotlight. Here's her review of the book and the Gooey Chocolate Cakes.

Linda, who joined me for a different cookbook review in the summer, is back again! Here's Linda's (from Kayak Soup) take on the Applesauce Spice Bars.

Next is Jen from Sydney Australia and her lovely site Milk and Cookies. Jen has some fabulous baking and restaurant reviews. I wish I could fly over to Sydney and eat at some of those places, they sound so good. Jen tried her hand at the Rugelach and World Peace Cookies and loved both. Thanks Jen.

A Thank You to Cate from Sweetnicks who squeezed us into her very busy schedule. Hope your Mom is feeling better Cate. Cate couldn't resist trying the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies and frankly, who could blame her? They sound delicious.

I love special guests, and here's one for the round up. Helen from Tartelette emailed me and told me that she too had this book and was loving every single thing she had made out of it. Helen has a delicious blog full of scrumptious treats. Helen - I'm still waiting for one of your delicious macaroons! Is it on it's way?? Thanks for emailing me Helen, and thanks for contributing your posts on Dorie's Lemon Merengue Tarts and Applesauce Spice Bars. Delicious!

Well friends, that's it! Once again I'd like to thank all the bloggers who took part . I'd also like to thank Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, especially David, for asking me to work with them for this event. It was a total thrill. And finally, a HUGE thank you to Dorie Greenspan for just being a warm, talented and gracious person. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

19 comments:

Great job on this. Thanks for including me. Even though there was not much in the book that works for my diet, I thought you might enjoy hearing what I did with the book. My youngest sister has eight kids and not much money. (Her husband actually makes less money than I do, and I'm a teacher, so you know I don't make much!) She's a stay-at-home-mom and loves to make goodies for her kids, so I gave her my book after I finished posting about it. She is THRILLED with the book. It totally made her day, and mine too, to be able to give it to her.

This was such a fun event for me to participate in. THANK YOU so much for letting me be apart of it.I love how almost all of us made something different, shows what a diverse group you picked(good job).

Thank you so much for inviting me to such a very fun event. I thought I had found most of the entries for this but now from you great round up I see I've missed several! Great recipes, wonderful round up. Thanks so much.

Fabulous round-up, Sara! You did a great job getting the books out and organizing all of this :D

Thank you, again, for thinking of me - I enjoyed it very much - almost as much as I enjoy the book now! ha! I made the banana bundt cake last night and it, seriously, is now my favorite banana cake recipe EVER. Yum!

Great job everyone!! As always, I'm so inspired and awe-struck at all of your talents in the kitchen.. ya'll rock! :D

Well done with the round up Sara. Again, thanks for allowing me to be part of all the fun and baking. How can one complain?Everyone's recipes look so good, and it is just making me want to bake some more!

Sara, once again a fabulous event! It was too much fun to participate and bake from this gorgeous book. Well, that is the oven buzzer with the Katherine Hepburn Brownies... Thanks again for asking me to participate!